1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to fruit presses which operate to dejuice, dewater or deoil fruits and other liquid-containing materials, such as grapes, apples, crabapples, berries, cherries, olives, pineapples, hops and other herbs, spent grain, sludges, such as sewage sludges, and oil seeds, such as olive oil seeds, cotton seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts, linseeds and the like.
2. State of the Art
Numerous machines have been designed and utilized for the purpose of dejuicing, dewatering and deoiling fruits and other materials, and most usually for dejuicing such fruits as apples, grapes, pears and the like. A number of different types of presses for this purpose have been developed, and a typical such device includes a plurality of horizontally extending platens, operated by suitable hydraulic systems which compress the fruit against a table, the fruit being contained in a specially designed "press cloth," which typically has an open top, and has a closed, permeable bottom and sides for the purpose of containing the fruit. One of the factors limiting the amount of fruit that can be handled in a given size of machine is the final thickness of the fruit cake, because a final cake thickness exceeding a predetermined amount, typically about two inches, will result in expression of the fruit pulp out of the press cloth. It is, therefore, highly desirable to be able to introduce into a given size of dewatering press a substantially greater quantity of fruit or other material than has heretofore been possible, thereby substantially increasing the production capacity of a given size of machine. Obviously, if a conventional fruit press can only compress to a final cake thickness of two inches, a press capable of compressing the same material to a final cake thickness of eight inches will effectively quadruple the production capacity of the press, for a given size of press and other substantially constant conditions of operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 220,249 discloses the use of a foldedover top press cloth for the purpose of preventing escape of the "pomace" about the edges of the press cloth. U.S. Pat. Nos. 255,896, 271,387, and 1,457,755 are also directed to presses utilizing folded over press cloths. However, it has been determined that the folding over of the press cloth to prevent expression of the fruit or pulp out of the press cloth is not satisfactory to permit operation of a press cloth witout such losses, at least under the quantities, pressures and rates of throughput utilized in modern fruit presses.
There is not thirty-six to exist any fruit press which is capable of compressing fruits or other materials in thicknesses of final cakes of up to about twelve inches, without any significant spill-out. For example, a conventional horizontal platen machine having platens of square shape with thirty-six inch faces, would normally produce a final press cake of two inches in thickness. The utilization, in the same type of machine, of the apparatus or process of this invention, allows final press cakes of up to twelve inches in thickness to be produced, thereby multiplying, by up to a factor of six, the throughput of the machine.